Who are the Revolutionary Guards?
The title “Revolutionary Guards” is short for “the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution” They are also known as Pasdaran, which is “guardians” in Farsi, the national language of Iran. The Revolutionary Guards were founded in Iran during the aftermath of the Islamic Revolution to carry out the mission of ideologically preserving the Islamic Revolution. The new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini and his followers were anxious about possible intervention from United States and other countries in the West after the United States and Britain sponsored coup of Mohammed Mossadeqh in 1953. The coup, also referred to as Operation Ajax, restored power to the pro Western Shah Reza Pahlavi. Ideological preservation includes, but is not limited to, safeguarding Iran from future interference from the West and maintaining an Islamic state. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards, falling under the broad Ministry of Defense umbrella, operates completely independent of Iran’s regular army, the Artes
They were Iran’s main bulwark during the 10-year-long Iraq-Iran War, and it is very difficult to find an Irani man now between the age of 30 and 45 who has not served with those guards. Secondly, these Revolutionary Guards are even today the bulk of Iran’s national defense forces. To declare them a terrorist organization is to consign the whole of Iran’s national military forces and much of their population to the category of terrorists. The message appears to be stark enough, and it seems to propose two things: that the US impose sanctions, which would cripple and virtually destroy Irani society, pretty much, as previous sanctions did in Iraq, and that at a time of its choosing, the US, or perhaps Israel backed by the US, can mount a military operation against Iran in the name of neutralizing the Revolutionary Guards and putting an end to what had been touted as Iran’s ongoing nuclear weapons program. All of this is backed up by the bizarre rhetoric of democracy promotion, not only Ir
